1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to operation guidance display performed to make a user effectively identify appropriate operation guidance through an image reading apparatus and an image reading system.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the case where an image reading apparatus is used and the case where an image reading system including the image reading apparatus and an information processing apparatus is used, it is often difficult for a user to obtain an appropriate scanning result when the user incorrectly places a document on a document plate. Therefore, the technology for displaying the scanning result on a preview screen for confirmation has been widely available. Further, there is the technology for displaying operation guidance indicating a document placement method and information about the document orientation so that the user can correctly place the document on the document plate. The above-described technology allows for attracting the attention of the user to decrease operation mistakes and increase the operability.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-109797 discloses the technology of performing a guidance display. If the user is made to select either upward orientation or leftward orientation as the orientation of an image shown on a document set on a document table and the document image read based on the selection is rotated, the user is made to select the document orientation through a drawing shown on the operation panel of an image reading apparatus. At the same time, operation guidance provided for the document placement relating to the selected orientation is displayed.
Further, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-309703 also discloses a method of displaying operation guidance relating to the document placement on the operation panel of a reading apparatus. More specifically, when a double-sided document is reversed when being placed on an automatic document feeder (ADF), only the side opposite to the side the user wishes to read is read. When a single-sided document is reversed when being placed on the ADF, the blank side is read. Therefore, the above-described operation guidance indicates a placement method relating to the obverse direction and the reverse direction of the image face of a document.
However, both the preview display area and the guidance display area are prepared in a limited display area so as to display the guidance while previewing the reading result. Therefore, if one of the above-described display areas is increased in size, the other is decreased in size. Otherwise, if the above-described display areas are displayed by using windows, one of the windows is hidden behind the other.
Further, there has been a reading method (mode) which allows for combining image data items after the image data items are scanned from a plurality of documents so that a single image data item is generated. For performing the above-described processing, a reading operation should be performed after the documents corresponding to individual divided areas of an original document are correctly placed on a document plate in a correct order within a series of actions which is started from when the document reading is started and finished after the image data items are stuck together. Thus, in the case where at least two different reading operations continuously occur in a single mode, the display area is provided for each of image data items for reading, the image data items being obtained by separating the preview result image from the guidance image according to known technologies. Therefore, it has been difficult to provide appropriate guidance with appropriate visibility for the next operation which shall be performed by a user.
The term “sticking together” will be used in this patent specification to mean the combination of parts of an image that are separately scanned or otherwise read by an image reading apparatus and then combined to form a single digital image.